Man jailed, fined for failing to explain money in bank account

KOTA KINABALU: A man, who claimed to have given his bank account numbers to his wife's relative, was fined RM200 and a day's jail by the Magistrate's Court here yesterday for two charges of having a total of RM1,320 cash in the account but failed to explain from where he got the money.

Magistrate Mohamad Aizat Abdul Rahim imposed the fine on Mat Kasa Jamaludin, 48, who hails from Selangor, after the latter admitted to both the charges under Section 22A of the Minor Offences Ordinance.

The indictment provides for a fine of up to RM100 or a maximum jail of three months or both, upon conviction.

On the first charge, the accused was fined RM100, in default, one week's jail and one day's jail for having RM670 cash in his bank account on October 9, 2015.

The accused then received another RM100 fine, in default, one week's in jail for his second charge of having another RM650 in another bank account on October 1, 2015.

Prosecuting officer Inspector Albert Basiri told the court that the complainant in this case had visited an online business website and interested to buy two products advertised on the website.

The complainant then banked in the said cash to the two bank accounts but never received the products.

During investigation, the accused admitted that the two bank accounts belonged to him but claimed that he had given them to one of his wife's relatives.

The accused also admitted that the purpose of giving the bank account numbers to his wife's relative was to make it easier for him to send money to his wife's relative.

The accused said that he had only met his wife's relative once.

In mitigation, the accused, who is a father of seven, pleaded for a lenient sentence on the ground that he neeeded to go back to Peninsular Malaysia and was aware that this was his fault for giving his personal bank account numbers to another person.